Exclusive Interview: Faina Savich, top 18 finalist on So You TFriday, June 22, 2007

Faina Savich began her time on So You Think You Can Dance being introduced by her brother, Stanislav, during auditions. Stanislav had made the top twenty last season and now Faina was attempting to follow in his footsteps. Once you saw Faina do her thing in auditions, she definitely looked destined to make the top twenty. Her elimination was controversial in that her partner, Cedric, let her down two weeks in a row, yet he remains on the show and Faina is sent home. Faina took some time to speak with us earlier today about her experiences on the show.
Below you will find both the full transcript as well as the mp3 audio of our interview.

Was it difficult following in your brother Stanislav's footsteps after he made it to the top 20 last year? Did you think you might be treated differently or would it be harder for you to make it out the top 20?

I honestly think it has nothing to do with my brother being on the show, because we all do our jobs when we go to auditions and it really doesn’t matter who was on the show last season or has fans. It really doesn’t, I didn't think so

Did you think you had a pretty good chance going into the auditions of making the top 20? Were you pretty confident?

Honestly, when I was auditioning in New York I was confident that I would make it to the next round because we had to do our style and I thought I did good and when we got to Vegas, then it just started and the whole thing started all over and there we had to dance other styles and do whatever we were asked to do and it was completely different form that point on. I was not confident about making it to the show, I was confident about me doing my best. Like every single day we were there and whatever we were asked to do I was really going for it. It was really intense, really intense.

In Vegas they showed that super dramatic thing of you lying on the ground, was it really that bad, was it serious?

Its just the, the dehydration wasn't serious, you know I was very weak for the next day...it's just because I forgot to drink water, its not because I’m a big drama queen or anything. I’m pretty strong just like physically and I’m used to a lot of physical stuff. They didn't show everything, but what they did show was so, so emotional and they couldn’t show everything but it was so emotional and it was stressful because we had to do so much, we were asked to do it right away, we didn’t have a lot of time to rehearse. We didn't have mirrors, that was a big thing for me because when I rehearse I wanna see what I’m doing and you kind of couldn’t so the time was so limited and we were all so stressful and the interviews and the cameras are around and I forgot to drink water and that’s why it was like that. It was fun, after I got some rest.

For the last two weeks, how difficult was it being partnered with Cedric who didn't have any really formal experience?

Honestly, I was very excited when I was paired up with him because in Vegas I saw him and he just totally blew my mind, seriously, because they showed his audition and just the way he moves I’ve never seen anything like it and really he would just amaze me and when I got paired up with him I knew it would be difficult because he doesn't have formal training and I knew that we would have difficult days just to learn from each other, but I was excited, I was really excited to learn from him because to do that, I was excited to know how he does it, you know.

Do you think though that you would still be in the competition if you had been paired up with somebody else because from last night's comments it seemed that it wasn’t really your fault, you kind of got brought down by him, didn’t you?

Well I can't say that I was brought down...it might have been like that I think that if I had a different partner I could have stayed in the competition longer but it wasn't because of him that I left. It's just I would be able to do more if I had a partner with formal training but I really have nothing against our partnership. It was great; it was really, really great.

Coming away from the show, now you’re gonna have little time to look back, what are you gonna take away from the whole experience?

The most important thing that I will take away from being on the show is just experience that I had being around with those people, with the judges, with the choreographers, with the contestants. Like I love them all and we just became so close and friends with each other and the best thing about it is we spent a lot of time together, but its still a short period of time but somehow through practicing together, through this whole experience, we became really, really close friends. Amazing.

What does the future hold for you, Faina?

For me, I’ve decided to not compete for the next, I don’t know how many years, and to find out more about other styles of dancing because its just so interesting to me right now, and whatever comes up for me I’ll take it because I’m open for a lot of things right now.